I’ve never been more proud to return to this newsletter, and a special thank you to all of you who’ve been subscribers since Day 1! And if you’re new here, hi, I’m Priya! Do you ever feel like there are so many shows & movies coming out that you can’t keep up? Are you craving to see some beautiful brown skin in the content you consume? If you said yes to these questions, you’re in the right place!
I’m planning to come back to a regular cadence of weekly newsletters so please bear with me as I catch up on ALL this amazing South Asian content!!
Without further ado…
Out This Week
“Dhamaka” | Film | Starring: Karthik Aryan | Netflix
“Sort Of” | Show | Starring: Bilal Baig | HBO Max
“The Sex Lives of College Girls” | Show | Starring: Amrit Kaur | HBO Max
“India Sweets & Spices” | Film | Starring: Sophia Ali, Manisha Koirala, Adil Hussain | In Theaters (Remember those?!)
“Oka Chinna Family Story” | Show | Zee5
“Your Honor” Season 2 | Show | Starring: Jimmy Sheirgill, Gulshan Grover | SonyLIV
What I’ve Been Watching
“India Sweets & Spices” | In Theaters Now
Any NRIs who grew up in America will relate to the relentless middle-class parade of kitty parties and functions at various aunties’ homes. Full of gossip, chai and backhanded compliments, the brown-nosing that happens at such events can be triggering for any young children — but its especially so for Alia (Sophia Ali) who returns from college to her New Jersey suburban home only to find she’s outgrown the outdated antics of her mom’s so-called “friends.”
It’s a new age for South Asian immigrant films, one that began in the ‘90s and early ‘00s with the likes of “Chutney Popcorn,” “American Desi,” “American Chai,” “Where’s the Party Yaar?” and more that attempted to capture the culture clash between immigrant parents and their American-born children. It’s refreshing to have moved away from the tropes of Kris, the “American Desi” ABCD who was so ashamed of his full name (Krishna) that he gags, guffaws and runs away from anything that could tie him to his culture. It’s complicated also when the diaspora has long been led to believe that assimilation into white culture is the only way to breed acceptance.
Instead, “India Sweets and Spices” takes on a 2021 lens: what happens when a new generation, one that is being raised in a more socially aware society, challenges the classist norms of Indian American culture? As the star, Ali perfectly embodies a struggling child of immigrants, one who knows all the right things to say to appease the aunties but has long since run out of fucks to give. She’s supported by the inimitable Manisha Koirala and Adil Hussain, who (despite their terrible attempts at American accents) step right into the shoes of immigrant parents who so badly want to attain and hold onto a superficial upper-class version of the motherland they left behind.
The most endearing thing about India Sweets & Spices is indeed its relatability — and the very 2021 way of challenging the classist norms of NRIs. Supported by strong performances by Ali as well as Deepti Gupta and Koirala, especially, the film is a warm reminder that who we are is more than what the auntie gossip would have us be. The film leaves a first-generation Indian kid like me hopeful that wokeness can be more than performative — and that the power of knowing the stories and histories of our parents is more valuable than any designer brand we could ever dare to wear.
Read more:
“The Sex Lives of College Girls” | HBO Max
This raunchy teenage comedy absolutely embodies the kind of show so many of us wish we had growing up. Starring Amrit Kaur as Bela, one of the four main leads, this show is exactly what its title suggests: A window into the sexual (and social) world of college girls in the modern age.
What sets it apart is its embrace of all the things we’ve thought or been through, or wish we could’ve said, in college. From sexism to nepotism, there’s plenty outside of actual sex that these girls must face in the modern era. It’s especially refreshing to see a character like Bela, an Indian girl who has grappled with singledom and acne for most of her life, come to college with a sex-positive spirit as opposed to a repressed one.
In the first few episodes, we see the girls navigate dorm life, extracurriculars and even professors who may underestimate them — all coming together to make an utterly relatable, and more importantly, funny, amalgam of personalities, tenacity and wit. It’s exciting to see producer Mindy Kaling turn to this form of storytelling: one that builds on the success of “Never Have I Ever” but broadens the appeal of the very diversity that didn’t exist when she was Kelly Kapoor. Instead, her writing and creative eye are obvious throughout the series, normalizing the cultures and taboos that so many of us grew up with — and it feels oh so right.
Read more:
Saloni Gajjar talked to Mindy Kaling about her inspiration for the show. [The A.V. Club]
Read Proma Khosla’s review. [Mashable]
Give Me More (a.k.a. What I’ve Been Reading)
Pixar’s first Asian-led film, “Turning Red,” co-starring Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, will be out March 22. [NBC News]
Read about the origin story of Fabindia and its founder, John Bissell. [The Juggernaut]
Read about the impact of “Jai Bhim,” a Telegu film that has been rated higher than “The Shawshank Redemption” and “The Godfather” on IMDB. [BBC]
Coming Soon to a Couch Near You
December 3: “Cobalt Blue” | Film | Starring: | Netflix
December 3: “Bob Biswas” | Film | Starring: Abhishek Bachchan, Chitrangada Singh | Zee5
December 10: “Aranyak” | Show | Starring: Raveena Tandon | Netflix
December 10: “Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam” | Zee5
December 17: “Decoupled” | Show | Starring: R. Madhavan, Surveen Chawla | Netflix | English
That’s all I’ve got for you this week! If there are any shows or movies you’d like to know more about, feel free to send me a message! (I’m especially interested in any non-Indian or non-Hindi content I may have missed.) See you all next week.